▪	RELEASED BY:		TOKYOPOP
		▪	AUTHOR / ART:		YOUNG-BIN KIM
		▪	FORMAT:		ENGLISH / B&W
		▪	PAGES:		176
		▪	RATING:		OT
		▪	RELEASE DATE:		08/07/2007
		▪	REVIEW DATE:		09/29/2007
		▪	REVIEWED BY:		CHRISTOPHER SEAMAN

Japan is not the only country where exam hell rules or ruins the lives of students in high school.  Korea also has the same brutal academic regime and has very tough standards students must achieve to move on in their post-secondary years.  The stories about the exams are legendary.  Failing them usually means, for students determined to go on in their education, taking a year to go to cram school or test prep school before sitting the tests again.  However, going to such places is expensive and success is not guaranteed.  Especially in the manga world where so many males undergoing this training are often distracted along the way by everything from bath houses they own filled with beautiful women to persocom robots who were found in the trash and brought home. 

Yes, manga does picture some wondrous fantasies in its many, many pages.  STAND BY YOUTH has the distraction part down just fine, much to the chagrin of Hyungmo Yang, the ‘wussy’ protagonist in the piece.  Normally a smart student, he panics in his finals and fails them all horribly, forcing him to test prep school, where he is placed in Class D, for the lowest ranking of students.  If he can get his grades up during the mock tests, he can move into Class A, where he should be.  However, a much more deeply seeded problem with test terror and those other distractions conspire to keep Hyungmo down…way down. 

With the entrance of the beautiful Sora in his class, things will not get any easier.  Sora is a girl with an abusive father who actually shows up one day at the school and tries to pull her out so he can use the money spent on her for his gambling and alcohol addiction.  She is drawn to the quiet and non-assertive Hyungmo, and he reciprocates her kindness, but to the cost of his already precarious relationship with his fellow class members in D group.  Add to this, Hyunmo’s earlier days keep coming back to haunt him, with old friends like the annoyingly overbearing Mina, the proverbial girl next door, and Jaeyoung, who’s interests in reading matter takes a more…mature…turn keeping Hyungmo off balance.  In his family, as the only son, he has the pressure to perform on his head, and his parents are wonderfully supportive of him.  His older sister, who is unemployed, is not.  His grandmother, who definitely has not heard of women’s’ rights, is another matter entirely.

You know Hyungmo is going to have an interesting time trying to get through the rest of the year in one piece.  His predicament in passing the tests is, however, something that will likely resonate with readers, and those interested in seeing him take charge of his life more will find this well drawn and well written series much to their tastes.  Remember- this is a Korean story, even though Tokyopop has billed it as a manga.  The place names, currency references and culture is very much Korean in nature.  And even though this is billed as a comedy, the story is more of a slice of life than a ha-ha farce.  The problems faced by Hyunmo and Sora are very real, and, in the case of Sora’s father, not very funny.  There is young adult angst here, but luckily it is tempered compared to more soapy stories of this nature one might read stateside.  And being more adult oriented, it should be pointed out this book carries an OT rating for some mature subject matter. 

EXTRA:
The book is rather light on special extras.  There is a short preview- one page- of the second volume in this five volume story.  Tokyopop ads are also included, and that’s about it!

IN SUMMARY:
STAND BY YOUTH is a hot new romantic comedy that will appeal to fans of LOVE HINA, GIRLS BRAVO and other stories about love among the textbooks in test-prep school.  Don’t just ‘stand by’ and miss this manga.  Buy it.  Read it.  Today.